Diary, May 12, "distinct" is today's guiding word. When you're living
literally 24/7 in close quarters with people, as we 50 are doing on this trip,
"distinct" hits you square between the eyes almost instantly. You know,
diary, it doesn't take long to figure out that each person, faculty and student
alike, is fighting her or his own particular hard battle, walking her or his
own road, entering her or his own door, carrying her or his own baggage of
different amounts and weights. So, when it comes to people, "distinct" and
"diverse" are really my backbeat words of every day. People are so complicated,
there's so much going on inside each of them, much of what we think we know
about each of them we don't. That's where perception, presumption, and
attribution, not to mention stereotype, fail us. There is no one set path.
Idiosyncratic is the best way to really describe people. Everyone is outside
the box. Everyone is an exception to the rule. No one is "the average." It is
ultimately the only true diversity. That makes each student, each class, each
day, each term a one of kind. Nothing routine about any of them. In the
traditional classroom, where you see students sporadically throughout a week,
when you're not in constant contact, eating, drinking, shopping, and schmoozing
with them, it's so easy to fall into the trap of blurring stereotyping, of
building thick, separating walls of assumption, presumption, preconception,
generalization, and attribution between you and the real each of them. It
takes battering rams of caring, constant awareness, intense otherness, a strong
sense of service, focused seeing, and sincere listening--and some techniques I
use--to break through those barriers. That's why at the beginning of my
Teacher's Oath I say live your "I care" and know that a class is a gathering of
noble, sacred "ones."
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier http://www.the
randomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
(O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ /
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(C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \
/\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/ \_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole hills" - /
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